In Any Event

When the Power Rangers came to Bentonville, AR, this spring, Ray Hughes brought his 10-year-old son to see them. Twice.

The boy had so much fun leaping through the intergalactic fun park that Saban Entertainment had brought to Wal-Mart’s parking lot, he asked to come back the next day. That’s all the validation Hughes needed: He’s the Wal-Mart marketing manager overseeing Saban’s summer tour of Wal-Mart stores.

Events are the ultimate face-to-face marketing medium. From the NFL Experience at the Super Bowl to Snapple’s lunchtime joke tour with Comic Relief,events are becoming de rigueur extensions that bring image ads to life.

Three evolutions are taking place at the same time as marketers seek more control over marketing results. Media companies from Time Warner to Nickelodeon are aggressively pitching event overlays to ad buys. That competition prompts event managers – think concert tours and sports tourneys – to give sponsors more latitude with promotions. And more marketers are simply creating their own events.

“We’ve seen more companies, because of escalating rights fees and a need for more control, turn to doing their own events,” says Lance Helgeson, managing editor of IEG Sponsorship Report, Chicago. “When you’re sponsoring an event, it’s someone else’s party. Other companies are there, too, so it’s harder to stand out.”

IEG projects North American marketers will spend $7.6 billion on sponsorship fees this year, and another $15 billion to $23 billion on promotions and ads to leverage those sponsorships. But 80-85 percent of in-market events aren’t tied to any sponsorship at all, estimates Paul Stanley, founder of PS Promotions, Chicago.

“It’s just too crowded out there,” says Stanley, whose agency opened PS Events in March to create client-owned events. “Bidding on properties drives the price up, and there’s a lot of traffic out there without a lot of control. In the end, it all comes down to control – of the event, of trade participation, of consumer behavior.”

Events also have become an important profit center for media companies as they nurture their own brands while massaging ad sales.

Rent to own Ironically, it was an ad buy that put beverage brand Snapple on the road for the first time.

Snapple is known for catering to Mom & Pop retailers with under-the-cap games and quirky P-O-P. But this summer the brand is opting for street-level buzz instead of up-and-down the street displays. As part of Snapple’s annual summer sweeps, Triarc Beverages, White Plains, NY, is touring 15 cities with a comedy show benefiting Comic Relief. The Joke’s On Us under-the-cap sweeps puts instant-win prizes on eight million Snapple bottles, and jokes on 200 million non-winning caps.

Part of Triarc’s $2 million ad buy on TBS Superstation (the company’s biggest layout on a single station), the tour is Snapple’s first, and “drills the promotion down to the grassroots level,” says Triarc senior vp-promotions Neal Larkin.

Two teams of professional comedians travel to lunchtime hot spots to host joke-telling contests. Triarc is buying an RV and “another fun vehicle, like a bread truck or an armored car,” wrapping them with Snapple art, and hitting the road with Turner’s staff and equipment, Larkin explains. Turner supplies comedians, videographers, and gear; Triarc provides footage to air on TBS in 80 promotional spots and sprinkled through programming.

Local businesses can collect Snapple caps, make donations to Comic Relief, and sponsor employees in the contests. Snapple spokesgal Wendy appears on TBS’s Dinner & A Movie on May 7 to kick off the tour. She’ll hit the contest stage in a handful of markets and appear in radio spots nationally. Deutsch Advertising, New York City, handles ads and the tour – the first promotion work from the promo and p.r. division the agency opened in January.

Turner introduced Triarc to Comic Relief, which is giving Triarc talent for a June 17 benefit show finale in New York City. Eight tour markets have strong Comic Relief chapters that provide comedians and drive traffic to Snapple’s stage.

When planning began in October, Triarc pegged Comic Relief as a nonprofit that “made sense with our corporate personality,” Larkin says. “So we went to Turner and said, ‘This is the charity we want. Does it make sense for them?'” At first, Larkin only wanted a mention for Snapple on Comic Relief’s June fundraiser. Turner helped spin it into a bigger tie-in, with money and exposure for Comic Relief and arms and legs in each city to execute Snapple’s tour.

Snapple came back to Turner after sponsoring the network’s Goodwill Games in New York last summer. Larkin was impressed with how Turner “delivered everything they promised, and more,” he says.

Turner is among the most aggressive media companies pitching event packages to advertisers. Its revenues rose 14 percent to $1.5 billion last year, due in part to promo overlays. In November, the Time Warner company renamed its 5-year-old marketing arm Global Client Solutions, which is working with all Turner properties, from cable nets to the Atlanta Braves. Turner has nine cable TV networks, and access to all of Time Warner’s properties.

“Our asset base is a big advantage,” says Michael Teicher, senior vp of Global Client Solutions. “Broadcast networks rent everything they air. We own movies, teams, stadiums, and we can be flexible in how we use them. We want to get so deep in with clients that we’re the first one they call when they have new money, and the last one they stop calling when money goes away.”

Sometimes Turner sits in the sponsor’s chair. Cartoon Network is in its third year as title sponsor of Smash Tennis, traveling clinics for kids. In 1996, Turner proposed that the Tennis Industry Association, ATP Tour, and U.S. Tennis Association “completely cartoon Smash Tennis” to attract kids 6-11 to the sport, says Kim McQuilken, Cartoon Network senior vp-general sales manager. Now, kids take clinics with costumed characters, practice their serves in an inflatable Dexter’s Laboratory, and see animated spots for tennis on the air. The tour hosted 300,000 kids worldwide last year, up from 50,000 before Turner came on board. This year, L’Oreal joins the tour as part of its ad buy for L’Oreal Kids shampoo on Cartoon Network.

“We thought we could do tennis in a creative way that would be prohibited in any other sport,” McQuilken says. He admits that some tennis execs bristled at first, but says everyone is happy with the results.

Turner insisted on creative leeway when it negotiated the deal. In fact, when Turner bid against another network for the sponsorship, McQuilken sent a costumed Scooby Doo to sit in the association’s lobby for four hours before the pitch. It helped.

Those nutty networks Advertisers like the creativity of networks. Nickelodeon is a favorite because it plays so well with a tough audience – kids two to five. One of Nick’s biggest events, the Kids’ Choice Awards, attracts viewers as old as 15, a major draw for sponsors like Burger King and GapKids.

“We treat this as a premier event, and price it accordingly,” says Nickelodeon vp-promotions marketing Pam Kaufman.

Burger King picked the May 1 awards off Nick’s calendar 18 months ago, and blew it out in restaurants February through April. Kids cast their Kids’ Choice ballots at BK, and picked up six Kids’ Choice toys (three featuring awards show host Rosie O’Donnell) with kids meals last month.

GapKids opted out of most award activities, preferring a low-key on-air presence. The clothes maker dressed kid presenters for the show, provided gift certificates for local sweepstakes prizes, and hosted a T-shirt designing booth at Nick’s premiere party.

“We absolutely walk in with a package” when courting sponsors, Kaufman says. “It’s better service to our brand to have a clear idea how partners can work together.” Matchmaking is Nick’s strong suit, she adds, citing BK’s cross-promo with Mattel for The Rugrats Movie last fall.

Kids’ Choice is a big seller for Nick’s affiliates, who get one minute of ad time per hour to sell locally.

Nick created a sweeps for affiliates in 40 markets, giving away a trip to the awards ceremony in each market. (Entrants in other markets compete for a single trip.) Tampa affiliates pooled their ad time and sold it to Winn-Dixie, their first supermarket advertiser. The buy made Winn-Dixie sole sponsor of the sweeps in Tampa. “Affiliates do pretty well with our programs because we have a strong brand name, and do a lot of in-store tie-ins” nationally, says Tracy Lawrence, Nickelodeon vp-affiliate marketing.

Nick wants to protect its event equity by working with fewer companies on more events. “We’re being really careful about the companies we want to work with, and they’re increasing their spending,” Kaufman says.

Media companies know clutter kills. Self magazine wants only four sponsors for its Mind, Body & Soul Festival, a one-day women’s event slated for early June in New York City’s Central Park. General Motors is presenting sponsor; Concept Cure, a corporate initiative supporting breast cancer research, and Chevrolet Cavalier will use the sponsorship to reach the estimated 10,000 women expected to attend.

“GM had been challenging us to come up with something they could own,” says Self publisher Beth Fuchs Brenner.

Self is courting sponsors for three pavilions: the Mind Village (inspirational workshops), the Body Village (fitness and spa sessions), and the Soul Stage (women singers and bands). “The pavilions will take on the personality of the sponsor,” with events customized to suit whoever signs on, Brenner says.

The entire event is an offshoot of Self’s Workout in the Park expos. That six-year-old program expands to four markets this fall with an expected 28 sponsors. Lilith Fair organizer EMCI, Stamford, CT, and Festival Marketing, New York City, handle the event for Self.

Start from scratch More brands than ever are going it alone, creating what Stanley calls “eventless events.” Take Harmony Foods: The bulk candy marketer had less name recognition – and less money – than M&M/Mars, Hershey, and Brach’s. Rather than be outgunned on the air, Santa Cruz, CA-based Harmony invented Gummipalooza, buses with giant Gummi Bears, magicians, and other performers popular with 6-year-olds. The tour hit 14,000 supermarkets in southern California from August through March, and may widen its circuit to include Denver and the Pacific Northwest when it resumes in June. The vehicle – director of marketing services Connie Franceschi calls it “an Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test kind of bus” – spends two to three hours at a store entertaining, hosting music clinics, and giving out samples and coupons while displays and in-store activities supported the brand. About 70 percent of stops are stores; the other 30 percent are family-friendly venues and festivals. Harmony offers grocers a stop and indirectly asks for display support. No retailer has turned it down. “Gummipalooza is an excellent p.r. vehicle because there’s a lot of excitement when the bus comes to town,” Franceschi says.

“Marketers are really taking the attitude that if there isn’t an event out there that suits their marketing needs, they’ll make it happen themselves,” says Mike Napoliello of U.S. Marketing & Promotions, the Palos Verdes Estates, CA, agency handling Gummipalooza.

Marketers also can schedule events to their own advantage. Next month, an undisclosed packaged goods marketer and PS Promotions begin testing Meet the Greats in Sports, clinics with Hall of Famers in football, baseball, and basketball. The one-market test is pegged for Father’s Day and the marketer’s peak selling season.

Timing can be crucial to retail support. Stanley contends that a well-planned event can grab four to six weeks of display, and free time from radio and TV partners. Bring in additional sponsors, and it gets even better. The second year jeans maker Wrangler Co. ran its Wrangler Country Showdown talent competition, it brought in Dodge Trucks as a sub-sponsor. Dodge funded most of the program, and Wrangler got additional visibility through Dodge dealerships. “Because Wrangler controlled the event, they could ask for whatever support they wanted from Dodge,” says Stanley, who executed the campaign.

Stanley contends that brand-owned events don’t add to marketing clutter. “It’s a new ballpark we’re building, and we’re playing in it alone,” he says.

The way the kids have been playing in Wal-Mart parking lots, he won’t be alone much longer.

3 Try to deal with an event’s director of marketing, not a director of sponsorship packages. “Event execs who feel pressure to market their own event are often more flexible,” says Mike Napoliello, director of client services, U.S. Marketing & Promotions, Palos Verdes Estates, CA.

3 Seek out people who share your sensibility. If you like a tongue-in-cheek approach, find an event and director that won’t bristle if you have some fun with their brand.

3 Don’t jump at the chance to be lead sponsor. See where you fit in. If you market a food brand, would you rather have event-goers see your name on a sign or buy your brand at the concession stand?

3 The Internet is a great source for very small events that give a grassroots halo with a targeted audience for very little money.

3 Consider several properties. “Don’t pick just one band to talk to. Pick four,” says PS Promotions founder Paul Stanley. “Then sign with the one who’ll go along with your budget, your program, and your demands. If you get 100 percent support from Wynonna or Clint Black, who cares which one?”

3 Negotiate through a pro. “The brand manager who thinks he’ll negotiate his own band tour contract is facing certain death,” Stanley says. Event pros can negotiate up front for more tickets, celeb appearances, and perqs to leverage at retail and with media.